


Lizzie McGuire: A Prom Night Story

by scribbleLaine



Category: Lizzie McGuire (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25167121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribbleLaine/pseuds/scribbleLaine
Summary: Prom night is finally here for the seniors of Hillridge High, and Lizzie and Miranda are looking forward to a fun night out with their friends. But will the high school rumor mill ruin their special night? And will Lizzie open up to Gordo about what’s really on her mind before it's too late? Mostly L/G angst with a healthy dose of M/L fluff thrown in. I don’t own these characters. ;-)
Relationships: David "Gordo" Gordon/Lizzie McGuire, Ethan Craft/Kate Sanders, Miranda Sanchez/Larry Tudgeman
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	1. Oh No They Didn’t!

Senior prom was in less than 8 hours, and to say that the seniors of Hillridge High School were having a hard time concentrating on anything else would be an understatement. The cheerleaders were comparing notes on how they would accessorize for the night, while the jocks were debating who would host the wildest after-party. And just about everyone was ready for the last period bell to ring so that they could get home and get ready for what was anticipated to be the best night of their collective young lives.

Miranda sat in 3rd period Creative Writing trying not to fall asleep. She and Lizzie had stayed up pretty late the night before finalizing their prom night looks. Miranda was planning to wear a gorgeous dark purple halter-neck gown with sequins on the bodice and a deep slit up the thigh, while Lizzie had settled on an elegant cream-colored spaghetti-strap gown in silk that hugged her in all the right places. They were so ready to hit the dance floor looking stunning, and they knew that Larry and Gordo, their respective boyfriends, would without a doubt be left speechless when they saw them in their prom dresses later that evening.

But first, they had to get through their remaining classes for the day. Miranda glanced up at the clock. Lunch was still 20 minutes away, and it felt like time was intentionally moving extra slowly. Knowing she couldn’t possibly hold the attention of twenty-five, distracted 18-year-olds who were mere hours away from their senior prom, their Creative Writing teacher, Ms. Dawes, had smartly given them an open writing period. All they had to do was write about something, _anything,_ for 55 minutes until the period was up. Then they could go off on their merry way.

Hearing a bit of whispering in the room, Miranda looked up from her desk to see one of the popular senior girls, Holly Jacobsen, passing a small folded piece of paper across the aisle to Katy Kurland several rows ahead.

Yet _another_ prom poll? Miranda thought to herself. Not exactly creative, but it technically _did_ count as writing she guessed. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her own writing, with which she admittedly had not gotten very far. 

These ‘prom polls’ had been getting passed around like wildfire in the weeks leading up to prom, and the topics were typically a bit scandalous. The seniors were quick to get and give opinions on everything from which type of hard liquor should be used to spike the punch, to which after-party was most likely to get broken up by the cops, to which senior would be most likely to end up blacked out and butt-naked on the football field the next morning. And of course, no one ever questioned who originated these polls (because it was usually a different person each time), but they would somehow always find their way back to whichever inquiring minds had started it. And they _always_ got people talking.

Polls would get passed around in the middle of classes, in-between classes in the halls, in the cafeteria during lunch and would sometimes even get slipped directly into peoples’ lockers. On any given day, there could be multiple polls circulating the school at the same time. And even the juniors were getting in on the prom night gossip, passing a poll around in their own circles before it would eventually make its way back to a senior. A poll that was started during 1st period on a Tuesday could easily have 200 votes or more by 6th period on Wednesday.

Across the room, Miranda watched as the note got passed to Parker McKenzie, who, upon opening it, promptly rolled her eyes and passed it to the next person without even voting. Whatever the poll question was, thought Miranda, Parker apparently didn’t care for it.

The note slowly made its way over to Miranda’s side of the room, eventually landing in the hands of Bethany Edelstein, who was sitting immediately in front of her. A small grin crept over Bethany’s face as she added her vote to the poll and folded the sheet of paper back up. Realizing that she’d be the one to hand the poll to Miranda, Bethany suddenly looked a little uneasy about passing it on. But at the silent egging-on of her classmates, she swiveled around in her seat and tapped lightly on Miranda’s desk.

 _Here we go again…_ Miranda sighed to herself as she looked up from her writing. And at that moment, she noticed something odd -- virtually everyone else in the classroom was staring at her. And Holly was giving her a particularly knowing look. _What the hell?_ Raising an eyebrow, Miranda cautiously took the folded-up piece of paper from Bethany’s hand and unfolded it.

Her eyes immediately widened in horror as she scanned the poll. “What the f--”, she stopped herself before dropping the f-bomb aloud in the middle of class. She quickly looked up to the front to make sure Ms. Dawes hadn’t heard her. But fortunately for her, Ms. Dawes didn’t have the best hearing and appeared to be dozing off behind a romance novel anyway.

She looked back down at the sheet of paper in dismay. Scrawled across the top in someone’s squiggly blue gel ink was the following prom night question:  
  


**_Are Lizzie and Gordo gonna smash after prom?_ **

**_| yes | no | idk |_ **

These ‘yes or no’ polls usually always followed this format, with columns for people to add a tick mark for their vote. Miranda quickly scanned over the votes. _Holy shit_ , she thought to herself _\--_ just from eyeballing, there had to have been at least 300 votes on this poll, which was the entire senior class and then some. It quickly became clear to her that she and her unsuspecting best friends had been among the few seniors left who hadn’t seen it. But what was even more glaringly obvious was that the entire class was pretty sure of itself in deciding that Lizzie and Gordo would be going all the way that night.

 _“_ Oh, no. No, no, no. Lizzie and Gordo _cannot_ see this _,”_ she vowed under her breath. With graduation fast approaching, her busy best friends had quite enough on their plates as it was and the last thing they needed was any extra pressure or unsolicited opinions from a bunch of horny, nosy classmates. Gritting her teeth and suddenly feeling everyone’s eyes boring into her again, she looked up to face the rest of the class. Holly, Katy and a couple of the other popular kids in the room were smirking and visibly struggling not to laugh. To the class’ collective amusement, Miranda flipped everyone her middle finger, very pointedly crumpled up the poll and shoved it into her bag never to be seen by _anyone. ever. again._ _Assholes,_ Miranda thought to herself, disgusted. 

Just then, the bell rang signaling the end of class. Ms. Dawes startled awake from behind her desk as everyone started collecting their things and shuffling out of the room. “Okay, everyone be safe out there tonight!” she yelled over the commotion. “Please use common sense, and have a nice time at prom!”. Heaving a deep sigh, she sat back down at her desk and picked up her romance novel to continue where she had left off.

Miranda shoved her notebook into her bag and stormed out of the classroom. There were obviously _way_ more votes on that poll than there were people in her Creative Writing class, so she didn’t think any of them had started it. But Miranda swore to herself that if she ever found out who _did_ start that poll, she would find them and crush them.


	2. ...Didn't Get the Memo, That Is

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back! So this chapter is a little longer than the first one and subsequent chapters will likely be closer in length to this one. My goal will be to post one new chapter each week. Hope you are enjoying it thus far!

Down the hall, Lizzie was just leaving 3rd period AP English and was in desperate need of a pit stop before lunch. She quickly swung by her locker to drop off her books and then high-tailed it to the girls’ bathroom.

As to be expected, the bathroom was buzzing with seniors primping, preening and chatting excitedly about prom. As soon as Lizzie walked in however, a hush fell over the room. _Well that’s weird_ , she thought to herself as she pushed open a vacant stall door and locked it behind her. The other girls in the room resumed conversing, but at a markedly quieter volume.

Lizzie had this funny feeling in her gut that they had just been talking about her, but she also had no proof, not to mention the fact that she hadn’t really done anything gossip-worthy. At least she didn’t think that she had. Between submitting college applications, editing the school newspaper, overseeing the writing lab and now preparing for prom, Lizzie had pretty much kept her head down and her nose to the grindstone all semester. Her plan was to major in journalism in college, and the process of fine-tuning her writing portfolio and crafting essay after essay for j-school applications on top of her regularly scheduled schoolwork had been a grueling one. It had consumed virtually all of her time, and when she wasn’t writing, studying or reviewing other students’ writing, Lizzie was just trying to soak up as much time as humanly possible with Gordo and Miranda before everyone headed off to college.

Wondering if there had maybe been something gross on her face, Lizzie sat down on the toilet seat with her bag and pulled out her compact mirror for a quick check. Her face looked fine. In fact, despite all of the end-of-year stress, her skin was glowing and she was having a pretty good hair day to boot. 

Lizzie brushed off the awkward attention as mere coincidence and finished up, exiting the stall to wash her hands and touch up her make-up at the sinks. As she lathered up, she noticed some of the other girls smiling pointedly at her through the mirror. She smiled right back at them with a small wave and continued washing her hands. Something definitely felt off. 

Lizzie was well-respected and well-liked enough at school that she got along great with just about everyone. But she wouldn’t exactly call herself a member of the senior class elite or a gossip-magnet. Other girls didn’t usually pay her this much attention in the bathroom. She didn’t have too much time to contemplate it though -- lunch period was starting and she wanted to catch up with Miranda to go over last minute details for that night. 

After leaving the restroom, Lizzie found Miranda at her locker, deeply engrossed in a piece of paper. Unbeknownst to Lizzie, Miranda was studying the handwriting on the crumpled prom poll to see if she could determine who was spawning rumors about her two best friends.  
  
“Oh good, you’re here!” said Lizzie cheerfully as she came up behind her best friend. Miranda startled, quickly re-crumpling the poll and stuffing it back into her bag before turning to face Lizzie.

“Heyyya, Lizzie!”

“Wanna walk and talk prom stuff with me on the way to lunch?”  
  
“Oh, uhh yeah, sure!”  
  
“Great, cause I could use your opinion on shoes.” Lizzie said, looping her arm through Miranda’s. ”Are you planning to bring flats for later in the night? I was thinking about bringing a pair in case my feet get too sore from dancing in heels, you know?”

Lizzie looked to Miranda expectantly, but she was silent and still lost in her own thoughts. More or less unfazed, Lizzie carried on.

“...Oh, and I think I finally wore my parents down about extending my curfew to 1am for tonight. I am so looking forward to the after party at Ethan’s.”

Miranda mumbled something in agreement and scratched her head nervously as she looked around. Other students were staring at them, and more specifically, at Lizzie.

“Also, is it just me or are people acting extra weird today?” Lizzie added looking around. “I know everyone’s excited for prom, but--” 

“Nope! No.” Miranda broke her silence abruptly. “I hadn’t noticed anything.”  
  
“Oh. Well, I had a weird experience in the bathroom just now. Definitely felt like I was being judged just for peeing...”

“Peeing… yeah, totally weird.” said Miranda, her mind clearly still elsewhere. Noticing her friend’s distraction, Lizzie stopped her in the middle of the hallway.

“Miranda, are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just… you know, excited about prom!” 

“Yeah, me too. So are you bringing flats tonight or no?”

Just then, and before Miranda could answer, Gordo emerged from the hustle and bustle of students in the hallway.

“Hey, Gordo!” Lizzie waved cheerfully to her boyfriend as he approached the girls. 

“Hey!” he said, giving Lizzie a quick kiss on the cheek. He gave a nod to Miranda, who seemed too busy staring down other students in the hallway to actually notice him.

“You coming to lunch with us?” Lizzie asked hopefully.

“Can’t today.” said Gordo. “I gotta jet to film club. It’s our last meeting of the year and I have to announce next year’s club officers. But I’ll see you guys this evening at Lizzie’s?” He gave Lizzie’s hand a brief squeeze.

Lizzie smiled and Miranda (still preoccupied) nodded along as Gordo took off for the A/V room. Lizzie sighed and turned back to Miranda. 

“I cannot wait for tonight, Miranda. This past month has been so insanely busy," she said looking back in Gordo's direction. "I feel like I’ve barely seen him.”

“Who?” Miranda replied, oblivious. She was looking around suspiciously at the other students passing by. It could have been any one of them who had started that stupid poll.

“Uhm, Gordo? You know, the guy who was just standing here a second ago… remember him?” said Lizzie, smacking Miranda in the arm. Miranda rubbed at her arm.  
  
"Sorry..."

“Are you sure you’re OK, Miranda?”

“Yeah, but you know what? I’m not so much in the mood for cafeteria mystery meat anymore. Let’s maybe grab lunch off campus today?” she replied. She figured it’d be easier to guard Lizzie from people’s nosy noses and prying eyes somewhere that wasn’t as busy as the school cafeteria.

Before Lizzie could even agree, Miranda was grabbing her best friend’s arm and heading for the double-doors at the end of the crowded hallway.  
  


\---------------------------------  
  


It was bittersweet for Gordo to be heading to his final meeting as president of the school film club, and the last film club meeting of his high school career. Over the past four years, his film club friends had become part of his tribe. They were fellow cinephiles and budding filmmakers who would gladly nerd out with him about things like camera angles, editing techniques, and the nuances of Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic universe. But now that senior year was coming to a close, it was time for him to officially pass the baton. 

They had taken their votes at the previous meeting and had elected Grace, a rising senior and current vice president of film club, to take over for Gordo. Grace had been Gordo’s right-hand woman for all things film club. And despite her being taller than him by a few inches, she had always looked up to Gordo for his creative vision, his intellect and his offbeat sense of humor. Lizzie and Miranda often teased Gordo that they suspected Grace had a crush on him, but he refused to believe anything of the sort. Or at least if she did, he never would have picked up on it. She wasn’t one to wear her heart on her sleeve, but the truth was that she was low-key pretty bummed about Gordo leaving them behind and heading out of state for college. And yet, she was still so excited for all of the new opportunities that would surely await him in New York. He had received his acceptance to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts just a couple weeks prior, and while Gordo had been modest in sharing the news with the club, they all knew that this was a very big deal.

So while Gordo was intending to focus this week's meeting on congratulating Grace and the other newly appointed club officers, Grace and the rest of the club had other plans. Upon reaching the A/V room, Gordo found it odd that the lights were still off. _Where was everybody?_ They always met during lunch period on Fridays, and the schedule hadn't changed in 4 years. Flipping the lightswitch, he was quickly taken by...

“SURPRISE!!” rang a chorus of film club students, all gathered around the long table at the center of the room.

The club had put together an impressive spread of food and parting gifts for Gordo, including plenty of film school swag. There was a brand new camera bag with accessories, an NYU hoodie, an NYU patch for his mortarboard and an intricately decorated (if not slightly misshapen) homemade cake made to look like an old-school film reel.

“Wow, you guys... what’s all this?” Gordo asked in disbelief as he set down his messenger bag and joined the group at the table.

“Well, we just wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done for this club over the years, and also congratulate you on your big acceptance to Tisch and your move to NYC in the fall. That’s so huge and we’re all really stoked for you.” said Grace. The others all nodded along in agreement. Xavier, another senior in the club, also piped up.

“Yeah, and hopefully after tonight, that’s not all we’ll have to congratulate you on.” he quipped, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at Gordo. The other film club students chuckled amongst themselves.

“I uhh... what?” Gordo stammered, completely unawares.

Grace quickly smacked Xavier in the gut. “Shut up, shut up!” she whispered forcefully to him.

“Nevermind him." Grace said as she side-eyed Xavier, hard. "He’s just bitter because he doesn’t have a date to his own senior prom."

“Give us a speech!” someone else shouted.

“Well uhh, I’m… actually speechless,” replied Gordo. “Thank you guys so much though. I totally wasn’t expecting anything like this, but it really means a lot to me.”

He paused for a beat. “...And while I’m sad to be leaving you guys, I know that the club will be left in good hands.” He said turning to Grace and presenting her as the new club president. The room erupted in applause as they exchanged thanks and congratulations. Gordo continued with announcing the other new club officers and after getting some other official club business out of the way, he sliced the cake and the group dug in.

After they finished eating and conversing, the group cleaned up and dispersed to get ready for their 4th period classes. Grace lingered behind for a few minutes to talk to Gordo alone.

“Soo, Mr. ‘valedictorian off to the big city’," she said in a sing-songy voice as she gathered her things and walked over to Gordo. "I guess I have some pretty big shoes to fill, huh?”

"Nah," Gordo replied. "You're the real MVP, and you'll take it and make it your own. I have all the faith in the world in you." Grace blushed at the flattery.

“So...you looking forward to prom tonight?”  
  
“Yeah, I really am actually." he said. "This semester has felt like a whirlwind of big decisions, so it’ll be nice to just take a night to have fun and not think too hard about anything.”

“For sure.” she replied. Grace knew about the prom poll that had been circulating and wondered if it had also been among the 'big decisions' he was facing. Not that it was any of her business, but she did care about him. She debated whether to make mention of it and settled on broaching the subject somewhat obliquely.  
  
“And, you know... you shouldn’t feel pressured into anything based on what other people think.” she cautioned.

Confused, Gordo raised an eyebrow at Grace. There was an awkward silence.  
  
“Oh, uhm... I don’t feel pressured about anything. Should I?”  
  
“Oh, okay. No, not at all! Yeah, that’s great… cause you really shouldn’t.” Grace stumbled over her words in realizing that he really _didn't_ know about the poll. Oops. Gordo looked at her quizzically for a moment before she changed the subject.

“Well anyway, I hope you and Lizzie have a nice time tonight. And of course, don’t forget about us little people when you’re a big-time director, okay?” she said, jabbing him playfully with her elbow. He smiled.

“Thanks, Grace. You don’t have to worry -- forgetting you guys won’t ever happen. And if you ever find yourself on the east coast, drop me a line, okay?”

“You bet.” she said, smiling sincerely. Gordo extended his fist and Grace bumped it with hers. She was gonna miss the heck out of him.

“Catch ya later, Gordo.”

He waved goodbye to Grace as she left the room. Sighing to himself, he looked around the A/V room and collected his things. 

As he went to put his parting gifts from the film club in his locker, something shiny caught his eye as it fell from his locker door. He looked down to find a single condom packet sitting squarely at his feet.  
  
Someone must have slipped it into one of the open slats at the top of his locker. But why? Looking over his shoulder, he quickly picked it up and shoved it into his pocket so as not to draw attention.  
  
_Probably just someone pulling pranks_ , he thought to himself rolling his eyes. Giving it no additional thought, Gordo pulled out his textbooks for his next class, closed his locker and headed off to Calculus.


	3. Cracking the Gossip Girl Code

After grabbing lunch with Lizzie and returning to campus, Miranda headed to the computer lab to meet up with Larry during study hall. He was working on an app for his computer science final and had spent most of his study hall periods that month cranking away at it in the lab. Miranda personally found the lab to be a little too cold and monotonous for extended study sessions; she much preferred spending her study halls outside in the courtyard. But she still made it a point to stop by and say hi to him whenever she had a few minutes to spare.

On her way to the lab, Miranda spotted Katy Kurland, one of the popular girls from her Creative Writing class. Katy was also heading toward the lab with a few friends in tow, probably to hang out on Facebook. Slowing up, Miranda decided to lag behind them a few paces so that she could stay within earshot but not seem like she was following them… even though she most definitely was. She could just barely make out a few snippets of their conversation.

_“... oh the one about Lizzie and Gordo?...”_

_“...I know… can you believe?....they’ve dated for like...a million years.”_

_“...weird if they haven’t already.”_

Miranda gritted her teeth at the nerve of these girls casually discussing her best friends’ sex life like it was last night’s episode of _The O.C._ Those girls weren’t even friends with Lizzie or Gordo, let alone in the same social circle. So who were they to judge? And since when was it decided that exclusive couples who weren’t having sex by senior year were considered “weird”? Rolling her eyes, she continued eavesdropping from a distance.

_“...do you think he’s into.... or something?”_

_“...omg ew, Ana...”_

_“...that is like, so gross… how would you even...?”_

_“...guess she’ll find out soon enough…”_

Miranda’s blood boiled as the girls carried on laughing. _Okay, that’s it,_ she thought. It was bad enough someone had made a poll about this, but now they were going to speculate on the lurid details too?? Enough was enough. Miranda steeled herself to confront Katy and her friends for spreading rumors, but before she could get close enough to interrupt them, her cell phone beeped loudly and blew her cover. It was an incoming text from Lizzie:

**_Lizzie: can u bring ur curler 2nite?_ **

Scrambling to put her phone on vibrate, Miranda hung back for a minute to reply to Lizzie’s text.

**_Miranda: ofc! but i thought u were wearing it str8?_ **

Meanwhile Katy, who was now aware that Miranda had been trailing them, whispered something inaudible to her friends as they entered the computer lab ahead of her.

**_**buzz buzz**_ **

**_Lizzie: changed my mind... :-)_ **

Miranda smiled at Lizzie’s text as she opened the door to the computer lab. She immediately saw Larry at his usual spot by the radiators, and he waved enthusiastically for her to join him. Miranda waved back to Larry before glancing over at Katy and her friends, who were still snickering amongst themselves. She was going to say something but decided to take the high road instead. _Not worth my time,_ she thought to herself. She started making her way over to Larry’s table. Right as she was passing by them, however, Katy loudly cleared her throat.

 _*ahem*_ “...I just hope they use protection.” she remarked to no one in particular. “I mean, it’d be a real pity if they didn’t.”

Miranda stopped dead in her tracks. She had been _this_ close to forgetting about Katy and going to sit with her boyfriend instead. But this girl was now deliberately trying to get under her skin and _that_ little quip was the final straw. She did a sharp 180 and marched over to Katy and her goons.

“You wanna repeat that, Kurland?”

“Repeat what?” Katy feigned ignorance. 

“I think we all know what you were just referring to…”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Miranda. Besides, I have work to do.” Katy said dismissively as she turned back to her computer.  
  
“Oh really? Cause it looks to me like you’re just scrolling Facebook.” Miranda said, pointing to Katy’s screen. Katy was, in fact, scrolling Facebook. But she didn’t acknowledge this.

Not having the time nor the patience for Katy’s games, Miranda decided to cut to the chase. She fished the poll out of her bag and abruptly slammed it down on top of Katy’s keyboard. Katy jumped.

“So who wrote it, huh?” Miranda demanded. The startled redhead looked to her friends, who were now silent. Turning back to Miranda, she shrugged.

“Why do you think _I_ would know?” she asked defensively.  
  
“I saw your bestie Holly pass it to you in class earlier and she looked pretty smug about it.”

“Maybe, but Holly didn’t start it.”

“Well does she know who did?” Miranda pressed on.  
  
“Why do you want to know?”  


Miranda paused for effect as she bent down closer to Katy’s face. “...So I can decide whether or not this person gets to keep their kneecaps.” she said without flinching. 

A guy sitting at the computer opposite Katy shifted nervously in his chair at the gruesome mental picture Miranda had just painted for him. She had come a long way since her days of awkwardly standing up to Kate Saunders in middle school. Miranda and Kate had long since reconciled, but in a lot of ways, Kate’s mean girl phase had prepared Miranda for girls like Katy.

Katy, however, seemed unfazed by Miranda’s intimidation tactics. She flicked the crumpled poll off her keyboard.

“Look, I don’t know who wrote it, okay? Holly just said that it got passed to her in the hall after 2nd period this morning.”

“By _whom_???”

“I don’t know, a junior?”

“A _junior_?” echoed Miranda, unconvinced. Across the room, the lab monitor had noticed a disturbance and glared at her for disrupting the silence.

“Does Holly even _talk_ to juniors??” Miranda continued, lowering her voice this time.

“No. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t try to talk to _her_ .” Katy said flippantly. “Anyway, like I said -- _she_ didn’t write it.”

"Yeah, she just distributed it, right? Which is just as shitty..."

"Whatever. I've told you all I know."

“If you’re lying to me, Kurland, I swear to g--”  
  
“I’m not lying, _Sanchez_. Go ask her yourself.” Katy suggested. That sounded like the last thing Miranda wanted to do. Holly Jacobsen was notoriously prickly to anyone who wasn’t equally as popular, or at least equally as spray-tanned, as she was.

“Fine.” Miranda said snatching the poll from the desk. “But just remember -- nobody likes a gossip. So I would watch my mouth if I were you… _and_ my back.” 

“Is that a threat?”

“I dunno. Could be.” replied Miranda as she coolly backed away from Katy’s desk. She caught eyes with the lab monitor again, who was now watching her like a hawk. Flashing both him and Katy a fake smile, Miranda turned and headed over to the bank of computers by the radiators where Larry was busily coding away with headphones on.

“Hey, Lar!” she said as she sat down next to Tudge.

“Hey, gorgeous.” replied Larry. He took off his headphones and gave Miranda a quick kiss on the cheek. He'd been furiously thrashing away at the keyboard, code flying from his fingers at what looked like about a million lines per minute.

“So, how’s the app coming along?” Miranda asked, bracing herself for an onslaught of technical jargon.

For the last year or so, Larry had been o-b-s-e-s-s-e-d with the Matrix Online MMORPG and spent an inordinate amount of time creating his own modifications for the game. So for his senior computer science final, he had decided to build an unofficial interactive hub for players to chat about the game and integrate their own mods.

“Swimmingly.” he replied. “The Matrix NerdNet is gonna be huge. I just finished setting up a load-balanced server with a SQL database for the submitted mods and a direct link to the MxO servers so that people can upload their own mods via my server-side API and use them in-game. Clearly these game developers have some security issues to work out and patching third-party content through to their servers this way is probably a breach of their terms of service, but it’s still pretty cool, right?” Miranda nodded along in utter bewilderment.

“Now I’m working on a VR-based chat client so players can chat in real-time about the game but with custom 3D avatars. Check this out - my avatar has Neo’s face but with Jabba the Hut’s body.” he laughed, clearly very amused with himself.

Miranda’s eyes glazed over as Larry continued coding. She was pretty hip to his sci-fi fandom references by now, and she loved that he was so driven and tech-savvy. But she felt a bit out of her depth when it came to the computer science lingo. She was glad he was happy with his progress though, and she made a mental note to look into what exactly an “API” was later.

“So long as you can’t get sued for it, I think it sounds great, Lar.”

“Thanks.” Larry replied sincerely. “Couldn’t have done it without my muse.” he said, giving her a wink. Something told her that wasn’t entirely true, but it was a nice sentiment nonetheless. She watched him in silence for a moment before pivoting the subject.

“Hey, what do you know about this?” she said, casually sliding the prom poll in front of her boyfriend. Larry briefly squinted down at the sheet of paper. 

“Nothing? Also, yikes. Have Lizzie and Gordo seen that?” 

“Yeah, _‘yikes’_ is right. And no, Lizzie and Gordo haven’t seen it, thankfully. But I mean, can you believe the audacity?!” she exclaimed.

“Shhhhh!” someone hissed at her from a few tables over. Miranda mouthed ‘sorry’ in their direction and turned her attention back to Larry.

“I mean...why can’t people just mind their own business? This isn’t some joke about after parties or drunken idiots -- this is personal.”

“Yeah, and besides who would try to start stuff about Lizzie and Gordo anyway?” Larry asked earnestly. “I thought everyone liked them?”

“I don’t know, but when I find out, _very bad_ things will happen to them.” she said, folding the poll up and putting it back in her bag. Larry got an idea.

“Ooh, do you want me to hack into the school server and change all of their final grades to B minuses?” he offered gleefully, as if a B minus were among the worst things that could happen to someone...

“Er, uh… no?” Miranda raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend. “I don’t see how that would even-- wait a minute, you can hack into the school server?!” she asked at a whisper.

“I plead the fifth?” he replied, shifting his eyes away quickly.

“N-nevermind, no. That’s OK.” sighed Miranda. “I just… I don’t want this stupid prom poll stuff to ruin Lizzie and Gordo’s night, that’s all.”

“Well, it shouldn’t have to. They don’t know about it, right? And you’ve got possession of it now so just vaporize the sucker and it all goes away.” said Tudge very matter-of-factly. He had such a delicate way with words.

“Yeah... I guess. Just…don’t mention anything to them about it, OK?” 

Larry nodded in full-on agreement that this was the best course of action. Looking up at the clock, Miranda realized that she needed to get a move-on if she still wanted to swing by her Bio teacher’s office hours before the senior class’ early dismissal for prom.

“Alright, well I gotta take off. Have fun coding!” she said, slinging her bag onto her shoulder. “Oh, and I’m heading straight to Lizzie’s after school to get ready. Remember, you and Gordo have to be at Lizzie’s to pick us up at 5:30 _sharp_.”

“Aye Aye, Captain!” Larry affirmed as they both leaned in for a quick kiss. He then turned back to his app as Miranda stood up and began heading for the door.

“And don’t be late!” she yelled back to him.

“SHHHHH!” snapped several students all at once. The lab monitor pointed forcefully at Miranda and then at the door. Taking the hint, she quickly exited the lab. Good thing it was almost the end of the school year, she thought, because they would probably never let her in the computer lab ever again...


	4. Cat Out of the Bag

**Chapter 4: Cat Out of the Bag**

_♫ “Got me lookin’ so crazy right now… your love’s got me lookin’ so crazy right now...” ♫_

Miranda sang along to the sounds of throwback Beyoncé that pulsated from Lizzie’s CD player as she stood in front of the bathroom mirror applying her mascara. 

She had swung home after school to quickly grab her outfit, shoes, makeup bag and curling iron before heading over to Lizzie’s to get ready for prom. The two best friends had always envisioned themselves getting ready for prom together, and they were having a lot of fun that afternoon bopping to their prom night playlist as they glammed up. 

Lizzie’s mom Jo would periodically pop in to see whether the girls needed any help (“Hey, just checking in on you girls!”), but the girls had to shoo her out every time she started drifting down memory lane and reminiscing about her own prom. It was imperative that Lizzie and Miranda stayed on schedule, and now with less than an hour left before Gordo and Larry would be picking them up, both girls had showered, dried their hair, gotten into their gowns, and were in the final stretches of hair & makeup.

“They better play Beyoncé tonight.” Miranda chatted idly as she pulled her eyelash curler out of her makeup bag. “Did you hear she’s doing another album this year?”

Outside the bathroom, Lizzie was a little distracted. She was becoming increasingly annoyed by a stray curl that kept flopping in front of her nose as she styled her hair at her vanity. She fished through her vanity drawer for a moment before finally giving up.

“Ugh! Do you have any extra bobby pins!?” she called to the bathroom. “This stupid curl keeps falling in my face and I guess I’m fresh out.”

“Oh, yeah there should be some in my bag by your desk!” Miranda shouted back. Lizzie hopped up and quickly crossed the room to grab Miranda’s bag.

“Geez, Miranda… got enough trash in here??” Lizzie joked as she rummaged through her friend’s bag for the hair pins. Having known Miranda as long as she had, she knew she’d never been particularly tidy. But the sheer amount of gum wrappers, crumpled paper and wadded up tissues buried in her friend’s bag was quite frankly astonishing.

As she waded through the papers to get to Miranda’s hair pins, something caught Lizzie’s attention -- her own name scrawled in shimmery blue gel ink was peering out at her from the corner of the bag.

 _What’s this?_ she thought to herself, flattening out the paper a little bit to get a better look. Usually she wouldn’t have snooped in Miranda’s bag and she felt a little guilty sneaking a peek at the sheet of paper. But it _did_ have her name on it after all...

“Did you find them yet?” Miranda called out. Lizzie stopped rummaging as her eyes glossed over the sheet of paper.

“Oh my god…” she said aloud, her heart rapidly sinking into her stomach. Miranda heard this from the bathroom, and it was at that very moment that she realized that in her haste to get over to Lizzie’s earlier, she’d forgotten to dispose of the prom poll she had shoved into the very bag that Lizzie was now looking through. Miranda gasped.

“Lizzie, wait!—” she cried, dropping her eyelash curler in the sink and making a mad dash for the bathroom door. But by the time she reached it, it was clear that it was already too late. Lizzie was slumped against her bed mortified… and with the crumpled sheet of paper in hand. She had found the poll.

“Ahhhhh... okay, Lizzie, _please_ please don’t be upset…” Miranda panicked. “It’s not as bad as it looks—"

“Miranda, did you _make_ this?!?” Lizzie cut her off bluntly, her blood pressure rising. Miranda could sense that Lizzie was fuming and had jumped to the entirely _wrong_ conclusion.

“Oh my god, no!! I swear I would never do that!” She rushed over to Lizzie and dropped down beside her on the floor.

“Then _why_ is it in your bag?!?” Lizzie countered furiously.

“Someone passed it to me this morning in class and I crumpled it up to get rid of it!” Miranda gave Lizzie a pleading look. “I am so sorry, but you have to believe me! I was planning to throw it away and I just forgot...” she trailed off.

“Yeah, and you obviously ‘ _just_ _forgot’_ to even mention it to me!”

“I didn’t want to upset you!”

Lizzie furrowed her eyebrows incredulously. 

"Look, Lizzie. I'm not the bad guy here, okay?" Miranda pleaded. There was silence, but Lizzie knew deep down that Miranda was right and that she would never have done this. They had both seen and discussed their fair share of prom polls, and she knew her best friend wasn't in the habit of starting any… and certainly not about her. She let out a deep and disappointed sigh.

“I know.” Lizzie admitted sadly. “It’s just...humiliating. I mean, how am I supposed to go and show my face at prom now when people are gonna be whispering all night about me and Gordo having sex?” Tears began to well up in Lizzie’s eyes. She turned her face away, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

Miranda didn’t really know what to say. She hated that Lizzie was now so upset on what was supposed to be the best night of their teenage lives. And she silently seethed at whomever started that stupid poll. How did they even know that Lizzie and Gordo hadn’t _already_ had sex?

Regaining her composure, Lizzie took a deep breath and turned back to Miranda. “I’m not going.” she said flatly. Miranda’s eyes widened in shock.

“What?! Lizzie, don’t say that!” she urged, taking her best friend’s hand into her own. “Do you hear yourself? Skipping _prom_ ?!? Don’t let a stupid poll ruin your night and _don’t_ worry about what the rest of the school thinks you guys are or aren’t gonna do.”

Lizzie scoffed, snatching her hand away from Miranda’s. “That’s easy for _you_ to say, Miranda! The entire school hasn’t been passing notes about _you_ losing _your_ virginity like it’s some sort of joke!”

She did have a point, Miranda thought to herself. Although, the entire school _wouldn’t_ exactly be passing notes about her losing _her_ virginity at this point anyway because it had already happened the summer after sophomore year, with Cody Pearson. And unfortunately for her, Cody had been a bit of a brag about it. News of their hook-up was a hot topic for a hot minute, but it was now old news. And now that she had been with Larry for a while, people probably just assumed they were having sex too. But whether or not those assumptions were true, it didn’t really bother Miranda because she was perfectly content in her relationship.

But with Lizzie and Gordo, things were different. Things had always been different. They had been dating since freshman year but had somehow managed to stay immune to the inevitable peer pressures of high school, and especially when it came to sex. Sure, they had fooled around before and had maybe even come daringly close on a few occasions at Gordo’s house when his parents had been working late. But they had never been in any real hurry to take things all the way. Lizzie trusted that Gordo would never pressure her. And him being the consummate gentleman that he was, he never had.

In truth however, with their high school graduation fast approaching, Lizzie had been starting to have some anxiety about her relationship with Gordo. She knew he had applied to NYU along with the top film schools in California, and she had considered also applying to schools in New York. But unlike Gordo, who was itching to experience life on the east coast, Lizzie didn’t feel ready to move that far from home just yet. So at the encouragement of her parents, she had ultimately decided to attend UC Irvine, which had a great journalism program, would be much more affordable than paying out-of-state tuition, and would keep her closer to home. She had signed the paperwork, secretly praying that Gordo would stay in California too. One week later, he received a full-ride scholarship to NYU. 

Full-rides to NYU were rare, and knowing this had been his dream for as long as she had known him (i.e. forever), and seeing how hard he had worked for it, she was not surprised when he expressed his intent to go. It was an amazing opportunity that he couldn’t pass up, and Lizzie was incredibly proud of him. But deep down, she knew that long-distance was going to be really tough with them being on opposite sides of the country. And freshman year would presumably be filled with new challenges, new experiences and of course… new people.

She didn’t want to lose Gordo and she knew he would never do anything behind her back. But she would be lying to herself if she said that she wasn’t still nervous about things falling apart. He’d be leaving for New York in just five short months, and not knowing what the next school year would bring, she worried that this summer might be the last time they would have each other all to themselves... _and_ that it might also be their last chance to share themselves fully with each other before the next chapter of life (i.e. distance) got in the way. 

Lizzie thought back to how awful she had felt in the eighth grade when Gordo had briefly skipped ahead to high school, leaving her and Miranda behind. Not seeing him on her bus, in her classes, in the hallways and at lunch every day for a whole week had crushed her. At the time, she didn’t fully understand why she had missed him so much and it wasn’t until Rome that she realized she had feelings for him that ran deeper than friendship. But now that their feelings were out in the open, they had grown so much closer and had shared so many new experiences together during high school. She feared that Gordo leaving her now would feel like that miserable week in eighth grade all over again... except a thousand times worse.

Back then it had taken Miranda’s thoughtful observation -- that leaving wasn’t something he was doing _to her_ , but rather something he was doing _for him --_ to help Lizzie come to terms with his absence. And in hindsight, she realized that this same fact rang true again now. But this time around, it wasn’t just friendship at stake anymore and things would be so much more complicated. Lost deep in her thoughts, Miranda's voice brought Lizzie back to the present moment.

“Look, Lizzie…all I’m saying is, it’s our _senior prom_ – _your_ senior prom. You’ve worked hard and done everything you’re supposed to do all through high school. You deserve to go out tonight and have a good time and be carefree!”

Lizzie was despondent, still staring down at the question on the crumpled sheet of paper. Miranda could sense that something else about this was bothering her; something that went beyond a stupid prom poll and something that she wasn’t telling her. Whatever it was, she wanted Lizzie to open up to her so that they could talk about it. But in the interest of time, she pressed on trying to cheer her up.

“…A-and _so what_ if you and Gordo aren’t having sex? There's no high school rule book that says you have to! It’s really not that big of a deal, and it’s nobody else’s business anyway...”

Lizzie turned her face away, still not taking the bait. Miranda was beginning to lose confidence in her ability to convince Lizzie to let it go for the night. She tugged desperately on her arm.

“Come _on_ , Lizzie! Let’s just go and have a good time with our friends, and not care about what’s on everyone else’s minds.”

Not yet ready to admit that sex with Gordo had been on her _own_ mind lately as well, Lizzie chose to zero in on the first part of Miranda’s statement instead.

“Our _friends_ ?” she briskly retorted, gesturing down at the poll. “Miranda, _what_ friends? Clearly, the rest of my so-called _‘friends’_ have been passing notes about my sex life behind my back...” she said, her frustration now renewed in full force.

In a last-ditch effort, Miranda snatched the poll from Lizzie’s hand, ripped it up into as many pieces as she possibly could and threw them into the trashcan by the desk. 

“There! See? It’s gone! No more stupid prom poll. No more nosy people with their nosy opinions sticking their noses where they shouldn’t be. It’s gone. We won’t speak of it ever again, Gordo never has to know and we can just pretend like the whole thing never existed.” Miranda declared triumphantly.

Lizzie gave an exasperated sigh. “That’s _not_ it, Miranda…” she conceded. Her mascara had started to run down her cheeks, and it was kind of making her look like a sad clown. A very beautiful sad clown, but a sad clown nonetheless. Confused, Miranda sat back down next to her and placed her hand gently on Lizzie’s arm.

“Well, what is it then?… If there’s something going on between you and Gordo that you’re not sure about, you know you can talk to me, right?” 

Lizzie looked up at Miranda, her eyes full of worry. Miranda gave her arm an encouraging little squeeze and Lizzie seemed as if she was about to confide something in her.

But before Lizzie could open her mouth, the doorbell rang. Miranda could feel her tensing up beside her. Larry and Gordo were supposed to be picking them up from Lizzie’s before the four of them headed to Ethan’s to meet the rest of their prom night group. Miranda silently prayed that it was Larry waiting downstairs at the door and not Gordo, because she _really_ did not want to have to explain to Gordo why his girlfriend was now in tears on her bedroom floor just an hour before prom.

“Lizzie! Miranda! Larry’s here!” Jo McGuire shouted up the stairs to the girls. A wave of relief washed over Miranda’s body. She got up and grabbed a few tissues from the box on Lizzie’s nightstand.

“Here. Just sit tight, okay?” she said, handing the tissues to Lizzie for her to wipe her tears. “I’m gonna check in with Larry real quick, but then I’ll be right back. Promise!”

And with that, Miranda stepped out of the room and bounded down the stairs. It wasn’t exactly the grand entrance that she had originally envisioned; she was still in slippers instead of her heels and her makeup was only partially done. But she needed to buy some time so that she could diffuse Lizzie’s meltdown _before_ Gordo arrived.


End file.
